Britta Piel, Richard Delahaye, Ceren Genc, Sabine Sainte-Rose, Kimmo Kuortti: Learning from failure, leveraging community

Within the international higher education community, we see the celebration of achievements regularly. Successfully launching a new research project, reaching a milestone number of international students accepted and signing a new partnership. But what about learning from our failures? We tend not to share the lessons learned from a programme that failed or a collaboration gone wrong, while in some cases, there might be even more to learn than from our success stories.

In this podcast episode, host Laura Rumbley dives into learning from failure. How can we learn to embrace the willingness to make mistakes and leverage our community along the way? Laura is joined by five experienced IHE professionals from across Europe, all willing to share their experience with failure. Britta Piel, Richard Delahaye, Ceren Genc, Sabine Sainte-Rose and Kimmo Kuortti discuss what can be gained from talking about failure, how to pick ourselves up after a setback, and what wisdom can be shared with other colleagues.

About Britta Piel

Britta Piel is Head of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany’s (FUB) Center for International Cooperation, a unit within the International Office focusing on strategic internationalization, and Deputy Director of the International Office. Her tasks include advancing the university’s internationalization strategy, managing the university’s network of liaison offices worldwide, and initiating new cooperation formats. Managing a diverse team across four continents, she can rely on more than twenty years of experience in higher education institutions. Her interest in team development and organizational psychology prompted her to seek further education in this field and work as a humour trainer for national and international audiences. Britta holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from Saint Louis University, USA, a Certificate in Management and Leadership from the University of Hamburg, and a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Positive Psychology from DHGS Berlin. She also finished two years of training at Clownlabor Berlin e.V. and moonlights as humour trainer for the foundation “Humor Hilft Heilen” in Germany.

About Richard Delahaye

Richard Delahaye has over 40 years of experience working in the Higher Education sector across several organisations. During his career, he has worked in professional services and teaching roles. He currently acts as school manager for politics, philosophy and area studies, as well as at the Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities. He has vast experience with projects, both internal and external. He has witnessed outwardly successful projects that have left him with massive frustrations as to what might have been and also been part of projects that, from the outside, have appeared satisfactory at best but have left himself and the team feeling a huge sense of accomplishment and pride. Always trying to do something ’even better’ has been a driving factor for him and the teams he has been associated with, and he feels this gives suitable encouragement to all those who have been on these journeys with him, regardless of their role.

About Ceren Genc

Ceren Genc is the Team Leader for International Student Admissions at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. For over a decade, Ceren held positions as an admissions officer at a prominent university and as an academic partnership coordinator. Over the years, she has built up a strong international network and gained expertise in different aspects of the internationalisation of higher education. She has delivered several sessions and workshops on admissions and on recognition for refugees. Her professional interest lies in informal and non-formal learning recognition and formal learning recognition. She has been awarded the EAIE Rising Star Award in 2016.

About Sabine Sainte-Rose

Sabine Sainte-Rose is the Director of the Aurora European University Alliance Programme. Now located in the Netherlands, she has worked in six different countries in leadership positions in higher education and the French diplomacy and cultural network since 2002. Sabine Sainte-Rose has developed extensive skills in project and people management, academic policy, public relations and partnership building, curriculum development and internationalisation. Since 2016, Sabine has been an elected leadership member and trainer of the European Association for International Education, first in the Strategy and Management expert community and now at the General Council.

About Kimmo Kuortti

Kimmo Kuortti is Head of Global Education Solutions at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Kimmo has worked in different roles in higher education since 1995. He has managed strategic projects, directed the international office, recruited students at fairs, written speeches for the rector, planned office budgets, done virtual teacher exchange, participated in his 1st EAIE conference in 1997 in Barcelona, benefitted from the expertise of numerous international colleagues through EAIE and more recently, been training future teachers. His professional passions include research on private and public education providers and the development of accessibility, equality and inclusion.